The core group departments are the departments which currently participate in Doctoral Training Centre (DTC), research projects. The DTC projects provide the majority of the Institute's pre-commercial project portfolio and most of the technology opportunities that the Institute is endeavouring to commercialise. The core group departments are :
- Bioengineering
- Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences (SIPBS)
- Mechanical Engineeing
- Electronic and Electrical Engineering
- Pure and Applied Chemistry
- Institute of Photonics
- The National Centre for Training and Education in Prosthetics & Orthotics
- Centre for Biophotonics
- Mathematics
- Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management (DMEM)
- Department of Physics